Acer Aspire 5100-3357

Hello All,
I recently purchased the laptop listed in the subject line of this post. I thought for the asking price it seemed to be a pretty fair deal, see here:
http://officemax.shoplocal.com/offi...enumber=1&rapid=375023&prvid=OfficeMax-070304
As I've never owned a laptop before, the first time I tried to use it, I quickly discovered what a big difference there is between a desktop and a laptop there is. One of which is the touchpad that is supposed to 'act' like a mouse. When I first powered up the laptop, of course it had to 'setup' the operating system( windows vista home premium ) that took a little while. I have a broadband connection for the internet ( comcast high speed ). while I was getting the system setup, I decided not to plug in the internet cable to the machine for fear of getting a virus or something. Once I did get the system up and running, and installed a anti-virus program ( McAfee ) I decided to access the internet. I was disappointed as to how 'slow' the laptop seemed to access web pages compared to my desktop machine. Also, this notebook doesn't have a parallel port for a printer hook-up, thank goodness I have a usb printer available. I'm still trying to decide if I want to keep the laptop or return it. Does anyone in here own one of these, or at least have any experience with it ?
Thanks,
David

 

Web page access problems could be due to number of reasons, it could be your firewall/virus guard, the browser or the pre installed bloatware slowing down the notebook etc..

You can start off by closing all the unnecessary background applications. I'm not sure how Acer ships their notebooks, but I'm guessing they too have a lot of preinstalled software. If that is the case, then better uninstall the unnecessary stuff. When you mean it is slower than your desktop, are you using the same network connection (wired / wireless)? And what OS do you have in your desktop ?

Speaking of parallel ports: that is a dying technology for printers, and it is a waste to have a parallel port in a notebook. Parallel ports and serial ports were dropped from notebooks a long time ago.

You also have to understand that a notebook is not quite a desktop replacement yet, they are meant for portability. Therefore you will find some differences compared to a desktop.

BTW I don't think this is the correct forum to port this question.

 

Dear PhoenixFx,
I'm so sorry if you feel like I posted in the incorrect forum..I'll be happy to move it to a different one. As this was my very first post, I guess I wasn't thinking very well, just trying to get some help. As to your response, yes..I'm using the same broadband connection that I use for my desktop system, which by the way..has a slower processor, not as much memory, etc., as my notebook has. The notebook came preloaded with vista home premium, symantec anti-virus etc. software, various other software. Who knows..maybe I received a defective unit. Thanks for a response.
David

 

You will get better responses if you move your post to either Windows OS and Software forum or the Acer forum, since this is not directly related to What notebook should I buy section.

Anyways, coming back to your problem; if you know how to reinstall Windows , then I highly recommend it. Because, a clean installation without all the preinstalled bloatware is generally much faster. You can also try using a different browser like Fire fox or Opera.